CHINESE MANUFACTURING SURGES

HSBC China flash manufacturing PMI surged to a four-month high of 50.1 in August.

This beat expectations for a modest rise to 48.2. A reading below 50 shows contraction.

This is up from an 11-month low of 47.7 in July.

"China's manufacturing growth has started to stabilize on the back of modest improvements of new business and output," said HSBC chief economist for China, Hongbin Qu.

"This is mainly driven by the initial filtering-through of recent fine-tuning measures and companies’ restocking activities, despite the continuous external weakness. We expect further filtering-through, which is likely to deliver some upside surprises to China's growth in the coming months."

The sub-indices showed that new export orders contracted, and at a faster rate. Employment too decreased, although at a slower rate. Here's the breakdown: